I joined the company in September 1995 having just completed my A-Levels. My father, John, needed somebody in the warehouse to help with “Goods Inwards” and offered me the opportunity. I was playing semi-professional football at the time and had deferred a university place for a year so I took the opportunity to earn some extra money for a “day job”.

After a year and having decided to reject my university place, I started to work my way up through the company having spells in the accounts department, sales department as well as out on the road before taking a position based in our London showroom for almost 5 years. I was made a company Director in 2004 and then Managing Director in 2013.

I completed our Guild of Architectural Ironmonger’s education programme, obtaining my diploma (DipGAI) and the overall Bronze medal for the final year’s scheduling and law/finance examinations in the year 2000. I have since continued my professional development and am proud to be a Registered Architectural Ironmonger (RegAI).

I have been working in the architectural hardware industry since August 2005 having started out here at John Planck Ltd at the age of 17. Employed as a trainee architectural ironmonger, I started my career learning the trade in the sales office and was immediately enrolled on to the guild’s education programme, completing the 3 year course in 2009 gaining the industry recognised Diploma (DipGAI).

Since joining John Planck Ltd, I have progressed through the sales and estimating departments to the role of specification manager covering Kent and London. I was promoted to the role of Sales Director in 2016.

I started my working life as a PA in London but a few years in, I realised that I wanted to do something different. My boss at the time was one of the Partners at a firm of Quantity Surveyors in London and he encouraged me to study for Company Secretarial Qualifications, which I did. I then gradually took over the accounts and was promoted to Practice Accountant.

I left working in London when I had my children but have worked in the accounts field for several local companies before joining John Planck Limited in December 1996. I became Finance Director in 2003.

I started in Ironmongery in 1998 as sales representative for a local architectural Ironmongery company. Whilst at this company I studied for my diploma in architectural ironmongery which I passed in 2003 with a credit.

After 8 years of being a representative, I decided to move into the contracts side of the business becoming the Contacts Manager for the company. In 2009 I took the chance to head up the contracts department for another architectural ironmongers based in London.

In March 2010 I had the great opportunity to move to John Planck Ltd to become their Contracts Manager and have spent the last six years helping them to become the best Ironmongers in the business!!

I started my career in architectural ironmongery in 1986 For Comyn Ching Ltd. Whilst with Comyn Ching I studied for my diploma in architectural ironmongery (DipGAI) which I passed in 1990 with a credit. I have also attained the ATT (Accounts qualification) which I passed in 1994, qualified as a locksmith in 1996, and attended other management and technical courses during my career.

After various roles within the industry, I have spent the last twenty three years as a sales/technical representative. In July 2010, I joined John Planck Ltd in this role and during my time here, I have passed the FDIS Diploma (Fire door Inspection qualification) adding DipFD to my existing DipGAI qualifications. I have also resat and passed an up to date Locksmith course. I am hopeful of adding the final FDIS practical exam qualification soon which should see me qualified as an independent Fire door inspector.

My career within the Architectural Ironmongery industry started with a move to London from Yorkshire in 1988. In the intervening 28 years, I have built up a wealth of industry knowledge gained through several sales related positions, which I believe compliments the wide range of experience held by my colleagues at John Planck Ltd.

The first half of my involvement in the industry has mainly involved sales of architectural ironmongery and as such I passed the Dip GAI qualification in 1992 attaining the Gold Medal award in the process. I have also been involved in the specification and selling of timber doorsets during this period.

In the last 10 years, I have become more involved with the specification, supply and installation of automatic door systems and access control products, which I am pleased to say I am developing further in my current role, in tandem with the specification of other high-quality product ranges within the JPL portfolio.

I enjoy working as part of a successful team and place high importance on collectively delivering high levels of customer satisfaction.

I’ve been working at John Planck Ltd since September 2004 in the busy Sales department. My role has varied over the years from running and managing contracts to dealing with general day to day sales enquiries.

I joined John Planck Ltd with a general background knowledge of door furniture which I gained from my previous employment at a Midland-based manufacturing company. I have since increased my expertise in all aspects of architectural ironmongery having trained in and qualified for the Diploma of Architectural Ironmongery in 2008 (DipGAI). In 2017, I also took on some of the financial and day-to-day accounts duties helping out Sue Vaines

I started my working career 16 years ago as a trainee locksmith in south east London, where I learnt how to make keys by hand to existing locks, and also how to gain entry to a wide range of common and unusual locks in the industry. I stayed in this role for about 3 years until I was given the opportunity to manage a Kent based lock showroom for Banham, which I took and performed for 3 years before deciding that I would like to take my career a step further and learn more about the broader architectural ironmongery range.

I started this by working on a trade counter for 5 years serving not only the trade, but also the public on a face to face basis. Whilst I was working on the trade counter, I enrolled on the GAI education program which I completed in the 3 years and became GAI qualified (DipGAI) in 2011.

Once I’d obtained this qualification, I moved into the office and took on a more advanced role where for 5 years.

In 2016, I was given the opportunity and decided to join John Planck Ltd to help the company expand in all areas.

Once I finished college, I got my 1st job at the music store, HMV in 2009. I particularly liked this job as I could get staff discount on all the records I wanted!! I worked there for about 5 years in various roles as a sales assistant and then a Supervisor.

After I left HMV, I worked at Armitage Venesta for nearly 3 years as part of the internal sales team that looked after Scotland, The North and The Channel Islands. My main job role was to work with Architects and Contractors from specification to order completion.

I joined John Planck internal sales team in September 2015 as an administrator. Since joining the company I have enrolled in the GAI education course and have recently completed level 2, attaining my “Certificate in Architectural Hardware.